Payabli secures $20M to help SaaS companies get paid

By Riley Kaminer

The last thing a startup founder wants to worry about is figuring out how to accept payments reliably and securely. And while cash flow problems can make or break a startup, there are a wide variety of common problems and hidden costs these companies face.

Miami-based Payabli is on a mission to take the headache out of payments for SaaS companies. The startup has developed the next-generation of rails enabling the quick and easy deployment of embedded finance products.

Today, Payabli announced that it has raised a $20 million Series A to further fuel this mission in a round led by QED Investors with participation from existing investors TTV Capital, Fika Ventures, and Bling Capital. Last March, Refresh Miami reported that Payabli had raised $12 million across a seed round and a follow-on funding round.

The company reports that it will deploy these funds across product, security and scalability, customer acquisition, and partnerships. Over the last 12 months, Payabli’s revenue has tripled. This rapid growth trajectory will also translate the startup’s headcount, growing from 49 to around 70 employees by the end of the year.

“We’ve been resolute in our product vision of unifying Pay In, Pay Out and Pay Ops via a single unified API since founding the company,” Payabli co-founder, co-CEO, and product architect William Corbera said in a statement.

“The strong traction and growth we’ve experienced over the last year is a testament to the fact that software companies have become the modern distribution for payment processing and rely on modern solutions like Payabli to run their payments business,” Corbera continued.

Co-founder and co-CEO Joseph Elias Phillips added that Payabli’s seed round enabled the company to get the early traction it needed, on top of inking some key partnership deals.

And there is much more to come on both fronts, in his estimation: “Our Series A will be invested to further fuel innovation, particularly in our Pay Out and Pay Ops product categories, and better support our software partners to not only easily integrate our technology, but accelerate the activation of their total processing volume.”

In an interview with TechCrunch, Corbera shared that this fundraise was opportunistic, as the company had plenty of runway from its last raise. That opportunity: “to further accelerate our growth and take on some large enterprise customers,” said Corbera.

So-called “embedded finance” – financial services built into apps that aren’t explicitly financial – is a major buzzword in the startup space, but for a good reason. Embedded finance can provide new revenue streams, access to new customer data, an improved customer experience, and more.

Payments, however, can be a barrier preventing startups from doubling down on their embedded finance strategy.

“Payments and other fintech programs are the lowest-hanging fruit for software companies to unlock new revenue and create stickier, more valuable customer relationships,” Corbera said. “This is not only true for software companies, but any entity that coordinates money movement between payers and recipients.”

It is Payabli’s disruption of this corner of the fintech market that has given the company what Corbera asserts is a “nine-figure” valuation. And all signs point to much more to come.

*Payabli co-founders and co-CEOs William Cobera and Joseph Elias Phillips at an offsite company gathering.*

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Riley Kaminer

I am a Miami-based technology researcher and writer with a passion for sharing stories about the South Florida tech ecosystem. I particularly enjoy learning about GovTech startups, cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence, and innovators that leverage technology to transform society for the better. Always open for pitches via Twitter @rileywk or www.RileyKaminer.com.